Republican News · Thursday 13 March 1997
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Pressure increases on Denton
By Mick Naughton
The sectarian controversy surrounding British Minister Baroness Jane Denton, who is in charge of fair employment policy in the Six Counties, shows that despite 23 years of Fair Employment legislation the British government lacks the will to tackle sectarianism in the workplace.
Denton, under increasing pressure to resign, has refused to answer reporters' questions to explain her actions in transferring a Catholic victim of sectarian abuse - rather than the perpetrator - out of her private office. This week the British government, trying to douse the flames of nationalist anger and deflect US criticism, deployed former top civil servant Maurice Hayes, himself a Catholic, to investigate the affair.
Denton was expected to travel to the US this week for a St Patrick's Day reception at the White House but pulled out because of the controversy and Michael Ancram is to attend in her place. Denton also pulled out of a visit to West Belfast last Friday when it was thought her presence would have led to further embarrassment for the NIO minister.
Referring to his investigation, Hayes said, ``It should not be a threatening operation because it is not a disciplinary procedure''. A Northern Ireland Office official declared that ``due to security considerations'' Hayes's results would not be made public.
The Denton affair initially centred on Catholic civil servant Gráinne Hedley who took a fair employment case against Alvina Saunders, the most senior member of Denton's staff, who made abusive sectarian remarks during the first Drumcree crisis in 1995.
Denton, against fair employment rules, subsequently had Hedley transferred out of her private office while Saunders's career went unscathed and she remains in post.
It emerged this week that Denton also breached fair employment guidelines when choosing her travelling secretary. She ignored a short list of applicants and handpicked someone she preferred.
Meanwhile, Sinn Fein's national chairperson Mitchel McLaughlin this week put the ball firmly in the British Government's court. Prior to leaving for a major briefing with the Ad Hoc Committee on Irish Affairs in Washington on Thursday 13 March, McLaughlin said, ``they cannot blame the worst excesses of the sectarian Stormont regime. After 25 years of Direct Rule under successive British governments nothing has changed''.
McLaughlin assured nationalists that he will raise the demand for equality of treatment for nationalists and the failure of the British government to tackle structured discrimination when he briefs US politicians.
d in Washington this week the powerful House International Relations Committee (HIRC), which decides on funding for the International Fund For Ireland (IFI), will hear further evidence from equal opportunities campaigners.
The powerful congressional committee will take evidence from MacBride Principles activist Father Sean McManus regarding the absolute failure of 23 years of British `fair' employment legislation.
Funding for the IFI was radically changed in May 1995 by the HIRC when it became contingent on the IFI to implement principles similar to those contained in MacBride. This decision was opposed unsuccessfully by the British government through its US Embassy representatives.
``Its like putting the fox into the coop to look after the chickens,'' was how Washington-based Sinn Féin representative Mairead Keane described the Denton scandal this week.
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